ASTROVITAE ISSUE 02

PROMOTIONAL|SPECPOSIUM
SPECPOSIUM:
I had the opportunity to be a part of the irst ever Specposium event held by Charlotte
Bowman, creator of the Dracones Mundi project, and Henry Thomas, creator of On
Beyond the Holocene. Together Charlotte and Henry hosted a speculative evolution
symposium where those interested in the genre could give presentations about
speculative media or their own speculative biology projects. Like Astrovitae, Specposium
was conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic and looked to bring the community
together during dificult times. I asked Henry to briely describe the origin of Specposium
and give some details about it’s content. I hope that many more will join the next
conference coming in 2022! - Domenic Pennetta
BY CHARLOTTE BOWMAN & HENRY THOMAS
Specposium Logo. A redesign of the oficial logo by Domenic Pennetta for Astrovitae.
In reaction to the global COVID-19
pandemic of 2020, many countries
underwent lockdowns to prevent the
spread of the virus. This meant that
academic conferences and symposiums
had to evolve from in-person gatherings
(which would be considered ‘superspreader’
events during the pandemic) to
online meetings. Some of these online
meetings were lackluster imitations of
the conference atmosphere, with unusual
choices in software which constantly
broke, making it dificult to attend talks
and to ask follow-up questions, while
other conferences used more userfriendly
technologies.
We both realized that some of the
more enjoyable scientiic conferences
seemed fairly easy to set up. What was
needed was a chatroom, a way to show
live video and audio, and a time that
suited people across various time zones.
Henry is a master at making websites,
and within a few days of Charlotte saying
“pah, conferences look easy, I bet we
could host one” we had already started
preparations. The goal of Specpsium was
accessibility: an easy-to-use platform,
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